New solution enables mobility and end-to-end interoperability testing of voice over Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi offload on a single test platform

Spirent Communications has announced a new capability to evaluate the Wi-Fi offload and voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) performance of mobile devices on the Spirent Elevate Test Framework. The new solution extends Elevate’s unique ability to test multiple devices end-to-end on a single platform to cover Wi-Fi/ LTE mobility and interoperability testing.

Wi-Fi is recognized as the predominant wireless Internet access technology, used every day in home, work and public spaces. This ubiquity and accessibility makes Wi-Fi a critical part of carriers’ strategy to extend the user experience of VoLTE into areas where cellular coverage is poor or capacity is limited, especially indoors.

According to the Wireless Broadband Association, an estimated 60% of carrier network traffic will be offloaded to Wi-Fi networks by 2017. And with over 1 billion VoLTE subscriptions expected by 2019, the importance of evaluating the Wi-Fi and LTE mobility and interoperability performance of wireless devices is an increasingly important challenge.

“With the need to improve network capacity and maximize indoor coverage, Voice over Wi-Fi is being deployed by several leading North American carriers and is also being aggressively investigated in Europe,” said Saul Einbinder, vice president of marketing, Wireless at Spirent Communications.

“We have been involved in the initial deployments of Voice over Wi-Fi and continue to work closely with the industry on definition of Wi-Fi interoperability test plans. We’ve brought this expertise to our unique Spirent Elevate Test Framework, positioning us as leaders assessing LTE/Wi-Fi mobility and interoperability performance.”

Wi-Fi capability on Spirent Elevate allows developers to fully control and configure an emulated Wi-Fi access point as well as the ePDG entity in the core network responsible for authenticating Wi-Fi devices.

When coupled with the Elevate Test Framework’s ability to test multiple devices end-to-end, these new capabilities allow a wide range of additional scenarios to be tested, from correct Wi-Fi registration to complex VoWiFi, Wi-Fi offloading and RCS procedures.

Spirent also announced support for testing of Wi-Fi Access Points through an RF interface on Spirent Landslide, adding to that solution’s existing ability to test from the core network and Wi-Fi offload gateways to the Wi-Fi access points.